Lady Macbeth: Now and Then

Summary: William Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" portrays the gradual demise of Lady Macbeth as she lets evil get the best of her. Lady Macbeth's dominant, controlling, heartless nature and her obsessive ambition for her husband to become king leads her to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan. The resulting chain of events leaves Lady Macbeth unable to control her husband, subject to paranormal forces, and eventually revealing herself as the weak, helpless and feeble woman she was all along.

The Tragedy of Macbeth. Or, more accurately--the tragedy of Lady Macbeth? At the beginning of this play, Lady Macbeth is introduced as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife with an obsessive ambition to achieve kingship for her husband. As the play progresses, her truly frail and susceptible personality is exposed. By presenting a seemingly stable foundation of control, she paves the way for her husband's crowning. Her quick and irrational tactics are eventually what lead to her husband's insanity, as well as her own downfall. By convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan, she sets him off on a series of power-hungry murders, where he eventually convinces himself everything he does is the right thing to do. Lady Macbeth's character slowly crumbles through an unsteady control of her husband, shifting involvement with the paranormal, and trying to maintain a forged persona of unbending strength. Her unstable, sheltered, unsure and weak condition...